Second Life land loss escalates

by Tateru Nino Nov 18th 2008 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Economy, News items, Second Life

The unprecedented decline of Second Life land area appears to be accelerating according to data from virtual world operator, Linden Lab. The net loss of simulators which totalled nearly 9,000 acres as of midnight on 10 November, has escalated to a net loss of 12,874 acres (52.1 million square metres, or 795 simulators) by midnight of 16 November. At present this represents an accelerating decline, with no sign of it bottoming out.

While a number of users have requested a consolidation of four Openspaces simulators into a single ordinary simulator (which would represent an overall net loss of three simulators per consolidation) there is no data available to suggest that any of the requested consolidations have yet been processed. Linden Lab was not able to confirm for us that any such consolidations have yet taken place, so it is unlikely that they are a factor in this data. The net loss currently represents more than 6% of the total Openspaces simulators as at the time of the new pricing/product announcements.

All of this revolves around void simulators, and particularly the transition of costs and specifications from the existing Openspaces 2.0 void simulator product and the upcoming Openspaces 4.0 and Homesteads 1.0 void simulators products.e

Both of the new products represent reduced customer value over the Openspaces 2.0 product. Homesteads 1.0 has increased costs and reduced operating specifications, while Openspaces 4.0 retains the same cost basis as the 2.0 product, but takes a larger hit to operating specifications.

Linden Lab has indicated that there are no further plans to reduce price or increase the operating specifications for either of these products, but additional reductions to the product specifications (in the form of scripting limitations) are due to be announced before January 5, when the new plans kick in.

At present, many customers owning void simulators under the Openspaces 2.0 product plan seem intent on getting the most out of them, announcing that they will not be closing those simulators until 31 December this year. With so many hanging on until the end of December, that makes the current decline in simulator land-area seem far more pronounced.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Tags: economy, homestead-simulators, linden-lab, openspace-simulators, second-life, virtual-worlds, void-simulators, world-metrics

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 10:22AM 11-18-2008

I wonder if the landmass reduction combined with the increased influx of newbies will affect the population density significantly...

NekoAli said on 10:31AM 11-18-2008

I can't say I'm at all surprised. Linden Labs should find a christmas present of a lot of unused land servers thanks to this bone headed move to increase the cost of openspace sims while at the same time reducing their usefulness. And yet, they announce new positions to act as government liasons and official builders for corporate interests, in contrast to their former 'your world you build it' stance.

Goodbye Second Life. Hello Second Office Meeting Room. I for one do not welcome our new corporate overlords.

Jack said on 10:42AM 11-18-2008

Died died!! I wish this none-game was dead already!! Its all a crappy chat box.

Nerolus said on 2:28PM 11-18-2008

Please stick to trolling the SL forums if you're going to be a douche. SL isn't going anywhere, or even "DIED"ing in the least. Understand the article before you form a one-man angry mob, just because you disliked something about it. (Possibly the fact you had to pay for money and couldn't bother to build anything yourself.)

Brian! said on 10:43AM 11-18-2008

Time to return to First Life I suppose.

Darkdust said on 11:47AM 11-18-2008

It's almost like this was written in English... but not quite.

Uccello Poultry said on 1:26PM 11-18-2008

"While a number of users have requested a consolidation of four Openspaces simulators into a single ordinary simulator (which would represent an overall net loss of three simulators per consolidation) there is no data available to suggest that any of the requested consolidations have yet been processed." I can confirm this has happened. About three weeks ago my Partner paid a month's rent (about $110 USD) on an Openspace and advised the Estate owner that she would pay higher tier come January then again in July. Compared to the price of a "full" sim it is still a good value to some.

About three days ago the land disappeared with a standard "restart in 5 minutes" warning and didn't come back. After contacting Support it was learned that the Estate owner filed to have the sim and three others consolidated then sold to another party. He never told my Partner that he was going to do this nor did he contact her after the event. Only through the kindness of the Lindens were we able to have the sim restored for 24 hours so we could recover our prims and remove our custom terraforming.

This has been a difficult and heart-wrenching way to confirm the consolidation, but it is happening.

Nerolus said on 2:28PM 11-18-2008

While their decision with the openspaces was no ones fault but their own, you have to understand this:

The reason for the "land decline" is openspace sims. With an openspace sim (for those of you who don't know) it's the size of a normal region/sim, BUT the amount of objects/scripts is reduced. The SIZE of the actual land is still the same. They are measuring the land decline in meters.

With the rise of the openspace sim prices, people just couldnt afford it. That why they bought an openspace in the first place - to afford something significantly less than a full region, but still have the same amount of actual LAND or SPACE.

So if you think SL is dying, or whatever, think again. This was to be expected - it's not going anywhere.

rightasrain said on 8:13AM 11-19-2008

might go beyond -5,000 by end of January but most will be voids so full sim equivalent (FSE) will be 1,250 = less than 10% of total FSEs--but it could continue and hard to say how many FSE will remain. Oct was 32,000 made of 5,000 mainland, 14,000 island and 13,000 voids = 3,250 FSE for toal 22,250 FSE. M2 is a totally useless metric--like cowboys adding in scrub to their range.

ZATZAi said on 5:13PM 11-18-2008

If what land owners say in the concierge channel is to be believed. Consolidations have indeed been taking place. While many are asking how long it will take to have the order filled (As is to be expected) there are a few here and there saying they got it done already and how long it took.

So I would expect that yes, there have indeed been consolidations going on.

WereWoof said on 1:33PM 11-19-2008

The estsate owners where i havemy main house and my have are abandoning 90% of their OS sims, they have 40 of them . . . . . . ..

Dylan Rickenbacker said on 2:49AM 11-20-2008

I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. More is to come when the first stage of the new pricing hits in January, as you've pointed out, but the real drop will come in July 2009. I doubt that more than 10 or 20% of the OS's that existed before the announcement will be left after that.

Bugboy said on 6:04PM 11-23-2008

I went to check out a new club/shopping/castle/etc./etc. area a couple nights ago and was stopped in my tracks with sludge. I checked the land interface as I usually do, since I am an Estate Manager and I see it's a void sim! Not only that it's full to the brim with maybe 250 prims left.

These are the fools that have brought this upon us, they figure they can exploit what was intended to be something Estate owners can use as a low cost way to get some buffer around their full sims. Bullshit on whatever Lindens did or did not intend, it's their product, they can do WTF they want. The fact that the product was abused is why they responded as they did.

Lindens are attempting to put the OS sim land market out of business, and rightly so. It was never intended for people to make money off them, they were for Estate Owners to use as environment buffers. Now they are cost prohibitive for both the land grifters AND the Estate Owners who simply want some scenery. So we all suffer.

Shiina Petrov said on 8:51PM 11-27-2008

@ Bugboy, I take it you will find no reason to complain if you are told you must pay 67% more for Internet connection? How about for your actual place of residence? Our economy is not based on the idea that those who offer a product can change the deal any time they want. It is based on the idea that they must keep to the letter of agreements.

If they do not intend to rent out 3750 prims for forest (or whatever), and if they did not "intend" to let people rent OS to others, then they should not have acted as they did. Land is land and prims are prims.

You don't go to the store and say oh, if I use the tomatoes on the shelf in soup instead of salad tonight, the farmers might get upset and starve me with high prices.

Taff Nouvelle said on 10:43PM 12-28-2008

I completely agree, the OS sims should never have been used for huge malls with lots of scripts, or for clubs, they should have been used for open spaces and residential areas for one or two families only.

SO WHY WAS THIS NOT MADE CLEAR.

The lindens specifically told people who asked that they could use the sims for whatever they wanted to do with them, THAT is what is wrong, not the fact that they changed their minds, but that they KNEW what they wanted the sims used for, and did not make that clear at the outset.

bwild said on 3:56PM 1-05-2009

Supply always meets demand at the price point. Nothing wrong with buying LESS per the prices set by the seller, or let them adjust their prices to reflect your new level of demand. For the supply side view other business models include 1) shrinking supply to drive up prices, 2) Psyching out you consumers in-world (click-wrap agreements, company-town group think, Ponzi pyramids, AOL-style walled communities), or 3) growing a bigger pie. Mmm pies. I love pies.

But those pies might come from a different bakery.